Opponents of Billy Sapp’s 1,000-acre annexation proposal fought and won round one Monday. Now it’s round two, and opponents are ready for another fight.

Harg Area Residents for Responsible Growth spokeswoman Renee Richmond voiced the group’s concerns at a public hearing on the revised Billy Sapp annexation proposal at a Columbia City Council meeting Monday night. The proposed annexation would bring 170 acres into the city limits.

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Department of Mental Health opened its books to a Senate committee Monday amid protests against Gov. Matt Blunt’s proposed cuts.

Department director Dorn Schuffman told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the division of alcohol and drug abuse would lose nearly half its funding to Blunt’s proposed Medicaid cuts, which total about $12 million.

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s new director of social services says improving child safety is his top priority.

Gary Sherman, who was named to head the Department of Social Services by Gov. Matt Blunt on Monday, has experience working in Missouri government stretching back to 1974, including two stints as a division director in the 1980s.

A trio of property owners are planning to develop their land to create Richland Crossings, a 250-acre development on both sides of Richland Road east of Columbia.

Developers Garry and Drake Lewis and David Atkins began discussing plans in November to create a commercial and residential development at the intersection of Richland Road and a proposed extension of Stadium Boulevard to be called Highway 740.

It’s hard to function around people in denial. You have to be so careful not to jar them out of their state of bliss.

It’s not so bad when their condition is based only on personal relationship issues. For example, if they are in denial that their mate is unfaithful or that their children are deadbeats. People caught up in that kind of denial are usually harmful only to themselves.

JEFFERSON CITY — With little debate, the Senate gave first-round approval Monday to legislation aiming to make it tough for the adult entertainment industry to operate in Missouri.

The bill, SB 32, would impose a charge of $5 per customer for sexually oriented businesses, from strip clubs to adult bookstores, and a 20 percent tax on their revenues. The provisions are similar to what casinos in the state already must pay.

Last month, an additional 600 employees in the University of Missouri System became eligible for overtime pay, a result of new Fair Labor Standards Act regulations imposed by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2004.

That brings the number of new nonexempt employees to 1,200 since August.

Boone County workers and businesses could lose 178 jobs and $12.6 million under Gov. Matt Blunt’s proposed Medicaid overhaul, a statewide study by Saint Louis University economists shows.

In a county-by-county assessment, two SLU economics professors examined the fiscal impact of reduced Medicaid spending by the state, which would trigger losses of federal matching funds. Boone County ranks seventh among the state’s 67 counties in terms of projected job losses and lost revenue in the community.

At the center of Harrisburg, Palmer’s Market is not only a gas station, convenience store and restaurant, but also a town square. This is where many people in the town of 184 gather to exchange news and gossip over a cup of coffee and a bite to eat.

“When they walk in the door, we can say, ‘Hey, Bill!’ ‘How you doing, Dale?’ ‘Hello, Toby,’ ” market owner Dana Palmer said. “That’s what I like about living here. Everybody knows everybody.”

NEW YORK — Martha Stewart took up the cause of prisoners’ rights during her five months in prison and calls her time behind bars “life altering and life affirming.” Other white-collar criminals have proclaimed themselves equally transformed after emerging from prison. But are they?

“If you’re changed, then let’s see the action,” said Fred Shapiro, a lawyer who served time for bank fraud in Philadelphia in the 1990s and went back to prison for a white-collar crime episode 10 years later. Stewart, released Friday after five months in prison for lying about a stock sale, is the latest in a long line of high-profile white-collar convicts who have returned to freedom saying they have been renewed.

ST. LOUIS — The ink has barely dried on a bill changing the name of Southwest Missouri State University, but that didn’t stop fans at the Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournament from chanting “MSU! MSU!” as their team beat the University of Northern Iowa 70-62 on Saturday.

The House voted 120-35 last week to drop “Southwest” from the school’s name, allowing it to become Missouri State University. The change will take effect Aug. 28.

Providers of mental health services face a loss of state funding under Gov. Matt Blunt’s budget plan that would cut about $50 million in state funds from the Department of Mental Health.

Roland Meinert, chairman of the Boone County Mental Health Board of Trustees, said state mental health funding has decreased from 10 percent of the total state budget to 5 percent of the total state budget during the past 10 years, creating waiting lists for services and overextending the staffs of providers.

The crowds are creeping in. They stack up in longer lines at Schnuck’s and every other supermarket in town. They pack the trailers that orbit the city’s public schools. They jam Stadium Boulevard near Interstate 70 late on weekday evenings, adding five or 10 minutes to Columbians’ commutes from work.

Their presence transforms the landscape, fueling demand for the hundreds of condominiums and single-family homes that have cropped up east and west of Range Line Street and on both sides of Scott Boulevard over the past five years, erasing pastures and woodlands at a near-record pace.